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Markets have edged higher in late morning trades on account of gains in heavyweight pockets like HDFC, HDFC Bank, L&T, TCS and Reliance Industries.
At 1105 hrs, the Sensex was up 199 points at 18,195 and the Nifty gained 54 points at 5,339.
In the broader markets, the mid and smallcap indices were up 0.5-0.6%.
The rupee gained against the dollar today after the Reserve Bank of India announced measures late Wednesday to curb rupee fall through dollar flows.
At 1105 hrs, the partially convertible rupee was trading at 67.58 per dollar against the Wednesday’s close of 68.80/81, when it hit a record low of 68.85.
Meanwhile, Asia’s benchmark stock index rose from a two-month low as energy shares increased after concern military action against Syria will disrupt global oil supplies fuelled gains in crude prices this week.
Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.8% to 13,4434, Singapore’s Straits Times gained 0.4% to 3,018, China’s Shanghai Composite index was down 0.2% at 2,096 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.4 % to 21,612 today.
Back home, barring Realty index which was down 1%, all the other sectoral indices were up were in the positive territory. Capital Goods and Consumer Durables indices up 2% each were the top gainers followed by Oil & Gas, Auto, Bankex and Metal indices which were up 0.5-0.6%.
The losers among the Sensex-30 were Coal India and Infosys down 1% each along with SBI, Sun Pharma, Wipro and Hero MotoCorp down 0.2-0.8%.
On the gaining side were HDFC, Sesa Goa, L&T, HDFC Bank, Hindalco and ONGC up 2-3.5%.
Dr Reddys Lab, Bharti Airtel, TCS, Jindal Steel, Gail India, Reliance Industries and Tata Power up 1-2% were the other notable gainers.
The market breadth was positive. 845 stocks advanced while 663 stocks declined on the BSE.
